ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a method for producing and investigating starved cells. When energy is supplied to starved cells, it is taken up immediately and the longer the starvation period, the longer the lag period for the organisms. Thus, when energy, especially a labile substrate such as glucose or an amino acid, is added to an oligotrophic environmental sample, one must take into account the priming effect of the added substrate. Even in eutrophic ecosystems there will be physiological types of bacteria that will not have the proper substrates for growth and reproduction. In nature, the heterotrophic bacteria rely mainly on syntrophy for the energy source, because most bacteria cannot use cellulose. In the environmnent, it should be realized that the various bacteria present are in some degree of starvation-survival, mainly because only a fraction of the cells present are active.
